Buchholz wins 10th as Red Sox sweep Dodgers

Clay Buchholz got the job done again, despite some early troubles, picking up his 10th win, 2-0, over the Dodgers. He gave his team a three-game sweep and an 8-1 homestand, but if his 2010 credentials needed any more solidifying, he got that, too.

By Mike Fine

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Mike Fine

Posted Jun. 21, 2010 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 21, 2010 at 9:05 PM

By Mike Fine

Posted Jun. 21, 2010 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 21, 2010 at 9:05 PM

BOSTON

» Social News

Visitors to the Red Sox clubhouse these days might think they’ve taken a wrong turn at the club’s family room.

Because the first thing they would have heard late Sunday afternoon was “Clay, Clay, Clay” from Victor Martinez Jr. and D’Angelo Ortiz, the two young sons of Victor and David.

The pair was playing a spirited game of soccer in the middle of the room and were attempting to get a pass from Clay Buchholz, who happened to be starting that night against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“There’s a time frame where I’ll put headphones on and then I’ll sort of start to get focused,” he said, “but I think that’s when a lot of stress sort of starts to build up, sitting there four hours before a game listening to music, tying to get pumped up about it and you might start thinking about it a little bit too much.”

Instead, he had a little fun.

If that’s relaxation, then Buchholz might consider bringing the little guys on the road. From the clubhouse soccer pitch to the pitcher’s mound, Buchholz got the job done again, despite some early troubles, picking up his 10th win, 2-0, over the Dodgers.

Not only did it give his team a three-game sweep and an 8-1 homestand, but if his 2010 credentials needed any more solidifying, he got that, too.

“He didn’t get desperate. He stayed focused,” said catcher Victor Martinez. “That’s the great thing about him.”

In 6 2/3 innings, Buchholz lowered his ERA from 2.67 to 2.47. His 10th win put him in the same company with Tampa Bay’s David Price and New York’s Phillip Hughes atop the AL and it put him a whisper away from Price’s and Seattle’s Doug Fister’s 2.45 ERAs. Buchholz is a man this year. He proved it when he overcame a shaky start in which he walked two and gave up a first-inning single, only to escape. He overcame two hit batters, used two pretty double plays and came away looking like an All-Star.

“Think he’s done a great job,” said manager Terry Francona. “We ask all our pitchers to do the same thing. Work hard, do the best you can. He’s done that. Coming out of spring training, I don’t know that we knew exactly what he’ll be. I know in a lot of those meetings, Theo (GM Epstein) sat there and banged the drum. He was right. When they start reaching their potential it’s pretty exciting.”

This was the third time this season that Buchholz had shut out his opponents over at least six innings, and this one was the third time he’d done it while allowing as few as three hits. It was his 50th career appearance and his 40th decision (22-18). The beauty of it is that this was his third scoreless outing in his last five, and he managed to do it while struggling, eventually settling down to retire 10 straight before running out of gas and turning it over to Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon.

Page 2 of 2 - “I’ve been through a couple of situations like that this year,” Buchholz said of his struggles. “Early, it’s a struggle to throw strikes. I’ve been in situations where runners are on with less than two outs and I get out of it somehow.”

He does credit his defense, and with good reason, for Adrian Beltre and Marco Scutaro both made terrific defensive plays, and Dustin Pedroia scored the winning run after stealing second and scooting to third on the overthrow.

Even though the Dodgers had it covered, there was no one covering third base thanks to a David Ortiz shift. Pedroia knew that.

“I thought he had one too many Red Bulls,” Francona said. “That’s great baserunning, and we needed that.”

“They always have the shift,” Pedroia said, “so if the opportunity presents you’ve got to go, get over there with less than two outs, so it actually worked out perfect. I was going to go anyway, just because. Red Bulls.”

The beauty of his steal, he said, was, “we only needed a couple. Our pitching was dominant.”

No lie, and a real turnaround from the post no-hit Buchholz who had to be reconstructed after a terrible 2008 season. “There was a game in Chicago where I just wanted to go home and call it a season in ’08 (three innings, seven hits, five runs). You never want to go through hard times, but everybody on the staff, everybody in the organization told me ‘Hey you’re going to learn from it and it’s going to be a forward progression afterwards.’”

Now he’s to the point where he’s as good as anyone on the staff. It’s just that he’s got a funny way of showing it, witness his pre-game soccer skills. Actually, he looked like he could handle a soccer ball almost as well as a baseball.